EFE – Page 17 – Translating Cuba

The Cuban Economy Will Grow by 3 Percent in 2023 According to the Government and Barely 1.8 Percent according to ECLAC

Cuba is experiencing a deep shortage of commodities, high inflation, partial dollarization of the economy and frequent and prolonged blackouts. (14ymedio)

EFE/14ymedio, Havana, 12 December 2022 — The Cuban Government hopes that the national economy will grow by 3% in 2023, compared to 2% this year and 1.3% in the previous year, which would not be enough to recover the levels of 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Minister of Economy and Planning, Alejandro Gil, announced these figures when presenting the 2023 Economic Plan on the first day of the tenth session of the current legislature of the National Assembly of People’s Power.

The Cuban regime, by making these data public, recognizes, without openly subscribing to it, that the forecast of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) that the Island would grow this 2022 by only 2% was finally correct compared to the 4% that the Government claimed.

The ECLAC also indicated last October, that the forecast for 2023 is even lower and remains at just 1.8%.

Gil indicated that in 2023 there will be “continued progress in the gradual recovery of the economy,” a “hard” job, although he assured that there are “bright spots, alternatives,” and “solutions.” continue reading

“2023 will be better than 2022,” said Gil, who who urged work to achieve the forecasts, because “nothing is going to fall out of the sky.” “Without triumphalism, but with optimism,” he added.

At constant prices, the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2023 can reach – according to the ministerial plan — 53,931 million Cuban pesos (2,248.4 million dollars), compared to the 52,360 million pesos (2,182.9 million dollars) for 2022, the 51,334 million pesos for 2021 (2,140.1 million dollars), the 50,698 million pesos (2,113.6 million dollars) for 2020, and the 56,932 million pesos (2,373.5 million dollars) for 2019.

“The trend towards growth experienced during 2021 and 2022 is maintained, although the activity levels of 2019 are not yet achieved,” read the minister’s presentation.

Gil appreciated certain “conditions” that favor the economic recovery, such as the control of covid-19, the improvement that is expected for the tourism sector and the “results” of the international tour recently made by President Miguel Díaz-Canel.

Díaz-Canel visited Algeria, Turkey, Russia and China in November with the restructuring of public debt and energy supply as the main points of his agenda.

Cuba suffers a serious economic crisis due to the combination of the effects of the pandemic, the tightening of US sanctions and errors in economic policy.

This situation translates into a deep shortage of basic products (food, medicines, fuel), high inflation, partial dollarization of the economy and frequent and prolonged blackouts.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Etecsa Contracts with the French Company Orange for an Underwater Cable Between Cuba and Martinique

This connection “will give the country a new route for international services, geographically diversifying current connectivity,” Etecsa said. (14ymedio)

EFE/14ymedio, Havana, 7 December 2022 — The Cuban state telecommunications company Etecsa announced on Wednesday an agreement with the French company Orange to build an underwater cable between Cuba and Martinique to improve internet access on the Island.

The announcement came just a week after experts from the U.S. Department of Justice advised against installing what would have been the first submarine telecommunications cable to connect the Island to U.S. territory.

Etecsa explained in a statement that it has signed an agreement that will allow it to “expand and diversify international capacities, given the growing demand for internet connection and broadband services” and “support its international expansion.”

“It will allow, in accordance with the country’s economic possibilities, to continue expanding international connectivity,” the company said.

This connection “will provide the country with a new route for international services, geographically diversifying current connectivity.” Cuba has only one submarine cable for the internet, the ALBA-1, which has been connecting it to Venezuela since 2012. continue reading

It added that Orange will deploy the submarine cable through its subsidiary Orange Marine, to connect the province of Cienfuegos with the island of Martinique, a French overseas territory almost 1,200 miles away.

Etecsa did not announce deadlines or the cost of the plan. It only indicated that the project is “under development,” that it has “all permissions for deployment” and that “the physical structure” of the cable will be ready in 2023.

The week before, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission recommended not granting an underwater cable license to the ARCOS-1 USA system to connect Florida to the Island.

The U.S. Department of Justice stated that the Cuban government represents a “counter-intelligence threat” to the United States because Etecsa would manage the cable landing system, and then Havana could “access sensitive U.S. data traveling through the new segment of the cable.”

The Cuban government criticized this decision and said that it causes “harm to the Cuban people.”

On the other hand, the Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodríguez, on Wednesday, “strongly” denounced a cyberattack on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that occurred yesterday.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported on Twitter that its internet portal “had limited access to users for several hours from 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday.”

The cause, according to the Chancellery, was “a cyberattack that was intended to intentionally saturate bandwidth on the network.”

Rodríguez said that “illegal actions by cyberpirates are part of the unconventional war against Cuba in (the) communication and digital spheres.” The Foreign Ministry’s statement also pointed to the “communication war” against the Island, without offering more details.

The Foreign Relations complaint happened just two weeks before the Government held its “National Cybersecurity Day, whose “objective is to raise awareness and propose concrete actions in the technological field.”

“A computerized society, increasingly present in cyberspace, requires and defends its security,” said the Ministry of Communications, which used the hashtag #CybersecurityForAll in several publications.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban Government Recognizes Limitations in the Measures to Revive the Sugar Industry

Two ‘campesinos’ observe the deteriorated machinery with which the harvest is carried out in a Cuban sugar cane field. (EFE / File)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana | 10 December 2022 — “Although the benefits of the measures and their encouragement in sugarcane production are recognized, there is a group of objective and subjective factors that limit their scope,” said the president of Azcuba, Julio García, at the 5th plenary session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba that has been in session since yesterday in Havana.

The functionary mentioned, according to the official newspaper Granma, that these limitations are related “to the completion of the labor force, the creation of conditions to organize the collectives, labor and technological discipline.”

He added that there are also “financial problems and lack of inputs.”

A year ago, during the 3rd Plenum of the Central Committee of the PCC, these measures were implemented, which included actions aimed at the generation of electricity, the production of cane and its derivatives, as well as provisions on financing, logistics, business management and science, technology and innovation.

At the partisan meeting this Saturday, the Central Committee’s head of the Agrifood Department, Félix Duarte, affirmed that “this harvest will be the smallest in 64 years of Revolution.”

In other times, the sugar industry was Cuba’s economic engine, but it suffered a drastic drop in production starting in the 1990s with the crisis after the fall of the Soviet bloc.

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There Will be a Third Round for the Municipal Elections in 9 Constituencies in Cuba

The polling stations reopened this Sunday in Cuba for the second round of the municipal elections. (Wilfredo Yera/Invader)

EFE/14ymedio, Havana, 5 December 2022 — On Sunday, Cuba celebrated the second round of the elections of the delegates to the municipal assemblies of People’s Power in 925 constituencies, with a call to the polls of almost one million voters.

The National Electoral Commission (CEN) reported that on this day 2,748 polling stations were enabled for voting in constituencies where none of the candidates proposed by residents reached more than half of the valid votes in the elections held on November 27.

The president of the CEN, Alina Balseiro, told state television that the elections have taken place “with discipline and organization” and that their final results will be announced next Wednesday, December 7. The official also added that there was “a high rate of participation,” although no data has been released so far to support it.

Participation in the first round of these elections was 68.58% (31.42% abstention), the lowest since 1976, when this type of voting began on the Island.

That figure represented 5.7 million Cubans out of a total of just over 8.3 million called to the polls and 11,502 delegates were then elected, according to preliminary data on the results released by the CEN authorities. In addition, more than 10% of people voted blank or null. continue reading

Balseiro indicated this Sunday that nine constituencies from seven provinces are expected to hold a third round next Thursday. In those cases there are those where there are ties between two candidates or none of the proposed obtain more than half of the valid votes.

According to CEN authorities, in the 15 provinces there was at least one municipality in the second round and Havana and the eastern Santiago de Cuba, Guantánamo and Granma were the regions with the largest number of polling places on this occasion, due to the high numbers of registered voters. on your electoral roll.

The function of the municipal delegates consists of “exercising government, to intervene in state decisions that affect the entire community” and they will represent the problems, complaints and opinions of their constituency, according to the website of the National Assembly.

The candidacies of the delegates are proposed directly by the residents of the electoral constituencies – although independent candidacies are hindered to prevent them from prospering – while those of the deputies to Parliament are entrusted to candidacy commissions.

Based on the results of the process, on December 17 the municipal assemblies will be constituted, in addition to the election of their presidents and vice presidents and the appointment of secretaries.

The election of delegates to the municipal assemblies of Popular Power is held every five years and is the first step in the electoral process that will close in 2023 with the gradual renewal of the country’s main political positions, including the President of the Republic, a position to which the current head of state, Miguel Díaz-Canel, can run for a second term.

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Cubalex Denounces 26 ‘Incidents of Repression’ During the Municipal Elections

The high abstention rate, for Cuba’s participation rates, marked this Sunday’s elections. (14 and a half)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 1 December 2022 — Cubalex reported this Wednesday that, so far, it has documented 26 incidents of repression during the elections for delegates to the municipal assemblies last Sunday.

According to the organization, these events occurred in at least seven provinces of the island, with the largest number, 12, concentrated in Havana.

The organization points out that, according to the data collected, “the Cuban authorities continue to use the criminal investigation procedures, provided for by law, as a repressive instrument.”

Likewise, Cubalex registered “13 incidents of harassment” with 34 victims, of which 20 were women and 14 were men.

Among the actions detected by the group is the obstruction of “political participation, arbitrary arrests, surveillance operations and selective internet cuts.”

According to the organization, the objective was mainly focused on preventing activists from being able to act as observers during election day.

It also added that the relatives of the demonstrators imprisoned for their participation in the 11 July 2021 (11J) protests “were threatened with the transfer of their children to remote prisons and with harming them in court if they made publications contrary to the elections.”

Last Sunday, Cuba held the municipal elections in which the highest percentage of abstentions was registered since 1959.

Preliminary data from the National Electoral Council (CEN) released on Monday show that 31.42% of the eligible voters did not go to the polls. This is a particularly high figure on the Island, which is used to participations above 85%.

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US Court Recommends Preventing an Undersea Cable Connection with Cuba

The existing undersea cable system in the Caribbean area.

EFE/14ymedio, Havana, 1 December 2022 — On Wednesday, United States Department of Justice recommended to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that it deny a permit for the installation of the first submarine telecommunications cable that would connect the United States with Cuba.

The Cuban government represents a “counterintelligence threat” to the US and, since Cuba’s state communications company Etecsa would manage the cable landing system, Havana could “access sensitive US data traveling through the new segment,” explained the Justice Department in a statement.

“As long as the Government of Cuba continues to be a counterintelligence threat to the United States and is allied with others who are the same, the risks to our infrastructure are simply too great,” Deputy Homeland Security Attorney Matthew G. Olsen said in a statement.

According to the Department of Justice, Cuba’s relations with other “foreign adversaries” such as China or Russia represent a risk for the US Government if such a connection existed.

Olsen pointed out that the US, however, “supports the existence of a secure, reliable and open Internet network around the world, including in Cuba.”

The ARCOS-1 USA Inc. undersea cable system applied to the FCC to adapt its network to include the first and only connection of its kind between the US and the Island.

The ARCOS-1 network connects 24 landing points in 15 countries on the continent, including the US, Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Nicaragua and Mexico.

The US has criticized the Cuban government for limiting internet access on the island, especially after the protests of 11 July 2021 (known as ’11J’), and the power outages this summer.

Havana alleges that the economic and commercial embargo of the United States “has prevented it from accessing any of the dozens of cables that pass through areas near its coasts.”

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Cuba: Two Defense Attorneys Criticize the Prosector’s Evidence and Witnesses at Protestors’ Trial

Image from Cuban television of a trial related to July 11 protests. (Archivo)

EFE/14ymedio, Havana, 25 November 2022 — At least two lawyers for fifteen anti-government demonstrators criticized legal proceedings against their clients in open court on Thursday. The fifteen are being tried for participating in public protests on July 11 of last year, the largest such demonstrations in Cuba in decades.

A source who was in the Havana courtroom on the second day of the trial said the fifteen defendants were charged with assault, public disorder, contempt and incitement to commit a crime. The defense attorneys discounted the witnesses and evidence presented by the prosecutor.

The source told the Spanish news agency EFE that she was surprised to see that all the lawyers were state attorneys. “None of them are independent,” she said, adding, “I have to say that I fear for their safety.”

The source quoted one attorney as saying, “It is time for the country to start healing its wounds. It is time for the country to sit down and talk. It is time for the country to create public spaces so that all those who think differently can demonstrate safely and legally without being charged with a crime.”

Similarly, another attorney quoted a line by Cuban poet and national hero Jose Martí: “With all and for the good of all.”

The source reported that the prosecutor had dropped all charges of assault, public disorder, contempt and incitement to commit a crime but was still charging the individuals with sedition. continue reading

The attorneys took issue with the charge, noting that the crime of sedition is defined in the Cuban penal code as “an attempt to destabilize state order.”

They argued that this does not apply to the fifteen defendants, who participated in a demonstration that occurred in the Havana neighborhood known as Diez de Octubre [Tenth of October], far from the seats of power, unlike other protests which took place outside the Capitol.

One of the recognizable faces at the trial was Jonathan Torres, who was 17-years-old at the time of the protests. Initially facing an eight-year sentence, it now appears he could instead be sentenced to correctional labor without internment. “They are asking that Jonathan get five years of ’subsidized sanction,’ meaning [he would be allowed to go] from home to work, from home to school,” said Orlando Ramirez, his stepfather.

Ramirez previously told Miami-based Martí News that the prosecutor had argued that officials had not used firearms in confrontations with the July 11 demonstrators. However, a witness presented by the Public Ministry said that some of his colleagues were in fact carrying firearms and that he had heard gunshots.

According to Torres’ stepfather, the sentence threatens to be stiffer in at least one case, that of Dayana Camejo Ramos, the only woman to be charged in this case. “They were asking for seven years. Now they’re asking for ten,” he said.

EFE has learned that, in its first filing from from December 30 of last year, the public prosecutor’s office accused the defendants of perpetrating acts “of unlimited violence.”

The written indictment describes them as throwing “stones, bottles, wood and other objects” at police and shouting slogans against the Cuban government and President Miguel Diaz-Canel.

The defendants range in age from 51 to 17. Trials for the July 11 demonstrators have been going on since late 2021.

Families of those found guilty and NGOs have criticized the trials, citing a lack of due process, fabricated evidence and overly harsh sentences. Neither foreign media nor independent journalists have been granted access to the proceedings.

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Record-High Abstentions in Cuba’s Elections, 36 Percent According to the Latest National Data

According to the last data shared, two hours before the closing of the schools, the participation rate was at 63.85%, 18.2 percentage points below the rate at the same time during previous local elections. (EFE)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 28 November 2022–Sunday’s municipal elections in Cuba are on track to surpass the highest ever abstention rates in local elections since these were first held on the Island in 1976.

Closing at 5 pm local time, according to the last information shared two hours prior to the closing of the polling places, which were set up in school buildings, the participation rate was 63.85% (36.15% abstentions), 18.2 percentage points below the rate recorded at the same time in the previous elections, in 2017.

Since 1976, when the first elections of this type were held since the triumph of the Revolution, the participation rate ranged between 98.7% in 1984 and 85.94% in 2017.

Voters seemed reluctant to participate although closing time was shifted by one hour, to 6pm local time, “at the request of the electoral councils of various territories and voters themselves,” explained the National Electoral Council (CEN) without providing more details.

The documented levels of demobilization are reminiscent of the 26% abstention rate in the referendum on the Family Code in September. At the time, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, referred to it as a “punishment vote” for the pandemic’s economic consequences. continue reading

Included among the reasons for this abstention rate, according to different observers, are: weariness among a portion of the population after two years of serious economic and energy crises; lack of information in the absence of electoral campaigns, and a call by the opposition, on the island and abroad, to not vote.

Early in the morning, Díaz-Canel highlighted from his own polling place that the country heads to the polls despite the “stifling economy” and a “smear campaign.”

“This exercise is a citizen responsibility because we are electing our representatives to municipal organizations, the country’s primary government structure. This is in line with the work in the last several years to perfect socialist democracy,” he added.

He stated that the district delegates who will be elected today “will take on and approve development programs according to the priorities of the country. Later, the communities participate to implement their own proposals which have been approved by their participation mechanisms.”

For a few weeks, different opposition groups — especially from the exile community — pushed the option of abstaining on social media, although there is really no way to measure the extent to which these might have influenced the final outcome.

Also in the morning, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodríguez, stated that the dissident campaign “doesn’t make a dent” on people and predicted “very high participation.”

“These are attempts, they bark, which means we will get on the horse and move ahead (…) it is a shame,” added Rodríguez.

Thus, the elections occurred–as happened with the referendum on the Family Code, approved with 66.87%–amid the worse economic and energy crises since the 90s at least, which translates to shortages of basic goods, runaway inflation and blackouts which are ever longer and more generalized.

EFE was able to confirm a low turn out on a trip to three polling centers in the early hours of this election day. Those who appeared from the opening of the polls at 7:00 am were mostly older people or government sympathizers.

Another common denominator was the lack of voters younger than 30. According to official data, 22,205 young people were eligible to vote for the first time.

For Richard Romero, 41, we need to “reach” young people. “We need to know how to approach them. Young people are into other things,” he told EFE after casting his vote in the Havana municipality of Playa.

During this trip EFE was also able to confirm a certain level of ignorance, among what more than a few participants, about the role of neighborhood delegates on the political organization chart.

Delegates are responsible for the direct management of problems and complaints in their communities and sit on the Municipal Assemblies of the People’s Power, the administrative level closest to citizens. Among the functions of this assembly is putting in place a Commission of Candidates, which selects candidates for Cuba’s unicameral parliament.

These elections are, in fact, the start of a process which will conclude next year to form the Parliament, which in turn, will elect the President of the Republic. Díaz-Canel could opt for a second consecutive term, according to the Constitution of 2019.

On the Island, political campaigns do not exist. However, in the days prior to the election, state media shared information on the elections, although without providing practical details nor stressing the importance of the election as the starting point for the process of replacing principal positions in the country.

This last scope was unknown to a significant number of the voters interviewed outside their voting centers, including the spokeswoman for one of the voting locations. “I don’t know, they help us a lot, but I wouldn’t know what to say about that.”

Another element which marked the day were the complaints of independent civil society due to the arrests of activists who attempted to exercise their right as observers of the process. They also denounced that security forces prevented some of them from leaving their homes.

According to official data, of the more than 26,000 candidates who ran in the elections, 70% are from Cuba’s Communist Party (PCC) or the Union of Young Communists. In addition, 44% are women, 7% are young people and only 27% were incumbents seeking an additional term.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Cuba and Spain Share a Common Creative Space in a Collective Exhibition

The Cuban artist Francisco Alejandro is part of the exhibition, installed in an old factory in Havana. (EFE)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 28 November 2022 — On Saturday, ten Spanish and eight Cuban creatives inaugurated an exhibition titled: “Artists in Production”, a joint project which uses only the materials already available in the exhibition space — an old factory.

The project, promoted by the independent art studios, Estudio 50 and Figueroa–Vives, in Havana, and Nave Oporto from Madrid, proposes 18 installations which will “use elements already existing in the space”, explained Cristina Vives, curator of the show, speaking to EFE.

“None of the works should arrive here at Estudio 50 (the exhibition’s site) in a finished state, instead it’s all about how the space itself can intervene in the creation of the work”, the art critic added.

In the middle of setting up the exhibition Vives recounted that “it’s been ten whole days of sharing ideas on how to complete each of the works, whilst also thinking about the world in which we live, as well as our own artistic inclinations”.

“We have to work together. However dynamic, independent and creative we are as individuals, we can achieve much more together”, said the curator of a project which is also supported by the Spanish and Norwegian embassies in Cuba. continue reading

The concept of converting old factories into spaces for exhibiting contemporary art is the line promoted by the Nave Oporto studio in the Spanish capital, which has taken the idea to Cuba to promote this collective show, in which artists such as Miguel Fructuoso, Elvira Amor and Miki Leal are participating.

Fructuoso commented that beyond the mere artistic process itself, the essential thing has been the “human connection” with Cuban colleagues participating in the exhibition, including Francisco Alejandro y Lorena Gutiérrez.

For his part, Alejandro expressed that it has been an opportunity to “exchange ideas between, and enrich current cultural contexts in” Cuba and Spain.

They each agree that it has been a “marvellous experience” for both parties.

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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Canada Condemns the ‘Hard Sentences’ Against the July 11, 2021 (11J) Protesters in Cuba

Cuban-Canadian Michael Lima, human rights activist and director of Democratic Spaces. (Facebook)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Toronto, 25 November 2022 — Canada communicated to Cuba its “great concern” about the “violent repression” of the protests on the Island and condemned the sentences against the protesters of July 11, 2021, but did not indicate whether it will sanction the Cuban regime, as human rights organizations have requested.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Canada told EFE that it has transmitted “to the highest levels” of the Cuban regime its concern about the repression against protesters, journalists and activists, and that it condemns the “hard sentences” of the 11J protesters, up to 13 years in prison, according to the ruling leaked this month.

“Canada will continue to raise its concerns to Cuban officials about human rights violations,” the spokeswoman for the Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sabrina Williams, told EFE.

Williams also confirmed that senior Canadian officials met with the NGO Democratic Spaces, which on November 14, together with the Cuba Decide organization, requested sanctions by Ottawa against Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, senior officials and other entities of the regime for human rights violations. continue reading

The spokeswoman did not indicate whether Canada will sanction the Cuban regime, but added that the Canadian government considers it important to “provide a voice for human rights defenders and better understand their concerns and also to express them to Cuban officials.”

Michael Lima, a human rights activist and director of Democratic Spaces, confirmed to EFE that he met with senior officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on November 16, and said that, although Ottawa has not announced sanctions against the regime, he detected a change in mentality in the Canadian authorities.

“We are pleased that Canada understands that Cuba is a dictatorship, one of the oldest in the world, and that there needs to be justice. I liked seeing the change of mentality in Canadian government officials, who understand that human rights are systematically violated in Cuba,” he said.

Lima blamed Canada’s different attitude towards countries such as Venezuela, Nicaragua and Iran, to which Ottawa has applied sanctions similar to those requested against Cuba, in the absence of information about what is happening in the country.

“We are asking for uniformity in (Canadian) foreign policy,” he explained.

The director of Democratic Spaces believes that the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, “admires” the Cuban regime for the friendship between Fidel Castro and his father, Pierre Trudeau, who led Canada twice, first from 1968 to 1979 and later from 1980 to 1984.

“And if the prime minister has that position, it influences the formulation of foreign policy,” he said.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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More than 75 Cubans Arrive in Florida by Sea on Thanksgiving Day

“Our teams will continue patrolling by air, land and sea during the entire holiday season. Those who attempt to enter the United States illegally will be rescued and repatriated.”

EFE (via 14ymedio), Miami, 24 November 2022 — More than 75 migrants arrived aboard rafts at various points in the Florida Keys in the last few hours, according to official sources who, on Thursday, informed Miami television channel Local 10.

On Thanksgiving Day, the most important non-religious holiday in the United States, at least four landings of migrants occurred in the chain of islands situated between the continental US and Cuba.

“Our teams will continue patrolling by air, land and sea during the holiday season. Those who attempt to enter the United States illegally by sea will be rescued and repatriated,” Walter N. Slosar, chief of the Border Patrol (CBP) for the Miami sector, wrote on Twitter.

More than 30 migrants arrived at the uninhabited Marquesa Key, the western-most islet of the Florida straits, according to sources cited by Local 10.

Another ten arrived by boat at Dry Toturgas Key, a tourist destination for scuba diving that has no permanent residents, 19 landed in Marathon and another 17 at Grassy Key, reported Slosar.

All of them were detained and remained in the custody of the Border Patrol. continue reading

The information does not mention the nationality of the migrants arriving in the Keys, but it is the part of the United States closest to Cuba and it is understood that it is likely they are Cubans.

Border Patrol agents intercepted at sea 1,132 Cubans during the month of October, a significant number taking into account that in the prior 12 months 6,182 were intercepted, according to figures from the American Coast Guard.

The number of Cubans intercepted trying to enter the United States by land is even higher.

The Border Patrol indicated last week that a total of 29,872 Cubans entered the United States in an irregular manner via land borders in October, in the middle of a migratory crisis that had generated the greatest exodus of people from the island in decades.

The majority of Cubans, 28,848 of the total, made their entry via the Mexican border.

Only Mexico, with 67,186 migrants, exceeded the number of Cubans entering the United States during this time period, according to updated data from the CBP.

Translated by Wilfredo Diaz Echevarria

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Members of US Congress Meet in Havana with the Authorities and Producers

Meeting of US members of Congress and Cuban officials this Tuesday in Havana.

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 23 November 2022 A bipartisan delegation of the US Congress, composed of three members of the agricultural committee, met in Havana with the Cuban vice-president, Salvador Valdés Mesa, deputies and producers, according to official newspaper Granma this Wednesday.

Representing the US were Salud Carbajal(D), James Baird(R) and Jahana Hayes(D), members of the House of Representatives and the Agricultural Committee of the US Congress, who have been in Cuba since last Saturday, according to the newspaper.

They also visited scientific and commercial entities, added the source, without providing details of discussions in these encounters.

In the meeting with the Cuban vice-president in the offices of the Caribbean executive, participated the interim minister of External Relations, Geraldo Peñalver; the vice-chancellor Carlos Fernández deCossio and the charge d’affaires in Washington DC, Lyanis Torres. continue reading

Also present was the charge d’affaires of the US Embassy in Havana, Benjamin Ziff.

The information provided does not clarify anything else surrounding the stay of the US Congress members, whose visit takes place during the intensifying formal bilateral relations of the last few months.

This year has seen sustained contacts between the two countries in the areas of immigration, commerce and disaster aid.

Although quite far from the levels of the so-called “thaw” during the last term of Barack Obama, there have been some gestures and signals in both directions in the recent past, according to concurring experts.

Translated by Wilfredo Diaz Echevarria

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Religious Dissidents Form an Alliance in Cuba for ‘Freedom of Worship’

The Alliance of Christians of Cuba was constituted last week, the OCDH reported. (Captura)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 22 November 2022 — About thirty community leaders have formed the Alliance of Christians of Cuba with the aim of “working for freedom of association and worship” and “demanding the immediate release of all political prisoners.”

According to a statement released on Monday by the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH), based in Madrid, the alliance was formed last weekend in the east of the Island.

The group, the note added, will also work for “the immediate invalidation of the new Family Code,” a legislative package approved in a referendum last September that provides, among other things, the right to same-sex marriage and adoption. continue reading

The code was already rejected by Catholic groups in Cuba and also by some of the opposition, either because participating in the referendum was a “validation” of the Government or because minority rights were put to a vote.

Similarly, the “alliance has among its purposes to extend pastoral work to all regions of the country,” the text highlighted.

“Our people today suffer the worst difficulties after decades of hardships, years of constant deprivation of their rights and freedoms, and shortages that have corroded society and poison all areas of human work,” the statement said.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Cuban Government is Committed to Reducing ‘Obstacles that Hinder the Business Climate’

The Government has been discreet about the identity of Cuban-American businessmen, and the official press has not described the alleged opportunities offered to the group. (Twitter/Fihav)

EFE/14ymedio, Havana, 19 November 2022 — The Government of Cuba concluded this Friday the 38th edition of the Havana International Fair (Fihav) with the commitment to reduce “the obstacles that can hinder the business climate” on the Island.

During the closing of the event, Interim Minister of Internal Trade and Foreign Investment, Ana Teresita González, stressed that the “biggest milestone” of the fair was the presence of “new economic actors and Cubans living abroad.” Since 2021 almost 6,000 small and medium-sized enterprises [SMEs] have been approved.

This year, Fihav focused on attracting the investment of Cubans abroad, especially from the United States, who had a special panel dedicated to them for the first time. The Government has been discreet about the identity of these Cuban-American businessmen, and the official press has not described the supposed opportunities offered to the group.

Rodrigo Malmierca, Minister of Foreign Trade, stated that Fihav was designed “specifically so that they know better what can be done” and “to give them all the information so that they can do business with Cuba.” Fihav’s official sites have avoided disseminating the content of these “special” panels and meetings, although the minister reported that American firms — including those of Cubans living in the United States — should in any case ask for permission from the U.S. Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control. continue reading

The Island’s main commercial exchange ended with more than 50 agreements signed between Cuba and foreign companies, according to the president of the Chamber of Commerce, Antonio Luis Carricarte, speaking on state television.

In total, 402 Cuban companies were present, 70 of them SMEs, and delegations from 62 countries.

The Organizing Committee recognized the pavilions of South Africa, Italy, Venezuela and Mexico “for the quality of their designs and the massive participation of their companies,” according to the Cuban News Agency.

The Mexican pavilion — with 40 companies — received special attention from the Island executives, who are aligned with the Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

On the Fair’s Mexico Day, last Tuesday, three Cuban ministers were present: Malmierca of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, Juan Carlos García Granda of Tourism and Eloy Álvarez of Industries.

Cuba took advantage of this opportunity to present, as it usually does at this event, its portfolio of investment opportunities with 708 projects, 30 more than in 2021, in which the food production sector cornered 197 of them.

Due to the health measures from the coronavirus pandemic, the Fihav had been replaced in 2020 and 2021 by a business forum and a virtual fair.

The last face-to-face edition, in 2019, was attended by more than 4,000 participants from about 70 countries, of which Spain was the most represented with 110 companies, 30 more than in this edition, according to official data.

Two hundred eighty foreign companies from some 40 countries operate on the Island, including Spain, Canada and China.

The Cuban Government has relaxed its rules to attract more foreign capital in different areas of the economy, in the midst of a deep crisis — and the lack of currency in circulation — as a result of the pandemic, US sanctions and errors in management.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Justicia 11J Denounces the Arrests of Prisoners’ Relatives in Cuba

Relatives of prisoners arrested on Wednesday in Havana. (Facebook)

EFE/14ymedio, Havana, 17 November 2022 — Cuban organization Justicia 11J denounced on Wednesday the arrest of six relatives of people arrested for protesting on July 11, 2021 in the largest antigovernment protests in decades on the Island.

The arrests took place, according to this organization, “to prevent their attendance” at the United States Embassy in Cuba where a State Department delegation was visiting the Island.

Three of the family members have already been released and two more have not been able to leave their homes which are surrounded by a police perimeter, according to the NGO.

The Cuban independent media outlet, El Toque, added that the events occurred on Wednesday and that those involved were attempting to reach the embassy “for the visit” of the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Emily Mendrala.

The Embassy has condemned the events in a communication on social media. “We condemn the Cuban government’s detention of family members of imprisoned #11J protesters who were scheduled to meet with American officials today in Havana. Preventing parents from talking about their jailed children is unjust and inhumane,” states the message.

“These families,” it continues, “have a right to speak to the international community and anyone else they choose regarding the condition of their loved ones. We join calls for the Cuban government to immediately release all those unjustly detained.” continue reading

Deputy Assistant Secretary Emily Mendrala is the head of a delegation that, on Tuesday, held a round of conversations in Havana on irregular migration with representatives from the Cuban government led by Vice Minister of Foreign Relations, Carlos Fernández de Cossio.

The trials of the July 11, 2021 protesters have been taking place in Cuba since the end of 2021 while family members of those convicted and NGOs have criticized them for their lack of due process guarantees, fabrication of evidence and the long sentences.

Foreign media do not have access to the trials, nor do organizations such as Amnesty International, which had put in a request, nor the ambassadors of some European countries who tried unsuccessfully to attend.

Cuba’s Supreme Court states that due process has been adhered to in all of the 11J cases.

According to the NGOs Cubalex and Justicia 11J, following last year’s protests close to 600 sentences have been handed down, some as long as 30 years in jail.

Since July of this year protests have been documented throughout the country, especially in the last several days due to frequent blackouts and the handling of the impact of Hurricane Ian on the national electric system.

The Observatory of Cuban Conflict (OCC), based in Miami, logged 589 protests in October, five more than those documemented in July 2021.

The Cuban Attorney General warned at the beginning of last month that it will investigate the recent protests and that criminal acts “will receive the corresponding criminal judicial response.”

Translated by: Silvia Suarez

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